Governor Jerry Brown who is 80-years-old is finishing his second of two 8-year terms. His campaign fund is still flush with money which will allow him to continue to be active politically. He leaves the governor’s office on Jan 7, 2019 with a $14.8-billion surplus which he passes on to Democratic Governor-elect Gavin Newsom. This is the first time in 43 years that there has been a surplus of this magnitude since Governor Ronald Reagan left office in 1975 and governor Brown inherited the surplus. Governor Brown did not leave office the first time with a surplus but a deficit of $1.5 to Republican governor George Deukmejian in 1983.
Brown also implemented a rainy-day fund against an economic downturn which at this time holds $16-billion in reserve. California loves to tax wealthy people excessively. During economic downturns, however, the wealthy can divert much of their money which results in a precipitous drop in state tax revenue. The current excessive moneys has caused a veritable political “Gold Rush” as the democrats are proposing a number of spending bills for their favorite programs. These were outlined in the Sacramento Bee on December 5, 2018. No one, as yet, has proposed to use those funds to fund the CalPERS retirement fund which does not have adequate reserves to fund state retirees. No one apparently sees that as an appropriate legacy.
When Brown came into office the first time in 1975, he refused to live in the New Governor’s mansion in Carmichael. During his second 8-year stint, he had the old governor’s mansion restored and has lived at 1526 H street since 2015. Governor-elect Newsom has not yet decided if he will move there next month.
A retired deputy sheriff told me last week that he receives a CalPERS pension of $100,000 per year which was nearly equal to his final salary prior to retirement. What happened to the good ole’ days when a pension of two-thirds to three-fourths of your working wages was considered an appropriate retirement income?
It appears that the legislature has the same problems that congress has in controlling entitlements. The Social Security and Medicare benefits are scheduled to go into bankruptcy in the next decade. It appears that CalPERS, the worlds largest retirement system is not far behind. The retirement age for both systems should be increased to 72-years since the majority of people no longer die prior to age 65 but live beyond age 75 with a majority living to nearly age 80.
Since social welfare is bankrupting a large number of countries throughout the world, what is the answer? We no longer can punish FDR who started the largest Ponzi scheme ever. Madoff received life imprisonment for his Ponzi scheme which was miniscule compared to the Social Security and Medicare scheme. Maybe in a few more years we will have a Supreme Court that will rule both as being unconstitutional. Isn’t there someway to bite the bullet before then? The Executive and the Legislative branches are incapable of a common-sense approach. That only leaves the Supreme Court. It will take another several judicial appointments before they will have that capability. But there will also have to be a few more character assassinations in the process. The socialists do not seem to have a problem with that.
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Gluttony thrives in Government entitlement Programs.
It won’t Disappears until entitlements are reduced to the needy.
The needy should be defined as two standard deviations from the left side of the Bell Income Curve.